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Monthly Archives: July 2020

IRS Field Collection Continue — But Mostly Remotely

In a memo to field collection employees, the Director of Field Collection for the IRS's Small Business/Self-Employed Division has said that, due to COVID-19, Field Collection will continue to maximize telework and remote contact between employees and taxpayers for the vast majority of its cases. Face-to-face public contact/field activities will only occur in exceptional cases.

The COVID-19 pandemic, beginning March 2020, significantly affected Field Collection (FC) employees’ ability to conduct face to face investigative and enforcement activities with the public. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Field Collection and IRS have emphasized employee safety as our number-one priority, and that will continue to be the case when the People First Initiative expires on July 15, 2020.

Effective July 16, 2020 and until further notice, Field Collection will continue to maximize telework and remote contact between employees and taxpayers for the vast majority of our cases. 

Face-To-Face Public Contact/Field Activities Will Only Occur In Exceptional Cases, As Described Below. They Will Not Be Routine Or Regularly Occurring Activities.

Field Collection employees may be permitted to conduct essential face-to-face public contact/field activities, on a voluntary basis, only when necessary and appropriate, and only with Territory Manager concurrence.

These limited face-to-face public contact/field activities may include making field contacts to view assets, serve summons, take necessary and appropriate investigative and/or enforcement actions, and conduct interviews with taxpayers, their designated representatives, and/or third parties at their homes or business locations (if there are no alternate locations where these activities can be performed), and will only be authorized when:


  • There are no effective alternatives to face-to-face contact, and the failure to act poses a risk of permanent loss to the government, such as the expiration of a statute, assets being placed permanently beyond government reach, or the continuing pyramiding of employment tax liabilities or 
  • The taxpayer or representative has requested face-to-face contact and the RO and manager agree that field contact would advance the progress of the case.

In all instances, we will consider the personal facts and circumstances relative to each individual employee including factors such as risk status and personal safety concerns relative to the proposed face-to-face public contact/field activities. 

Employees must conduct all face-to-face public contact/field activities with caution and extreme sensitivity to the taxpayer’s personal circumstances, and how the taxpayer has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Employees must apply good judgment in determining when public contact and/or enforcement action is appropriate and should use Soft Contact procedures to determine the impact of the national emergency on the taxpayer. The IRM provides employees with the necessary authorities and discretion to appropriately handle unusual situations and hardship issues.

In all instances of public contact, employees are expected to wear masks or other face coverings, practice social distancing, and adhere to CDC guidelines (handwashing, etc.) to guard against possible exposure to or spread of COVID-19. 

Where possible, employees should consider conducting the meeting with the taxpayer in an IRS facility (such as, Taxpayer Assistant Centers) equipped with plexi-glass barriers. 

Field Collection employees and managers should use this document, along with the attached checklist, and other COVID-19 related federal, state, and local guidance on health and safety, travel, restrictions on state/local business resumption status, and most importantly, knowledge as to the appropriateness of face-to-face public contact/field activities given local circumstances, when considering and approving face-to-face public contact/field activities.

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Background. As part of the IRS's Field Collection group, revenue officers (RO) are IRS civil enforcement employees who work cases that involve an amount owed by a taxpayer or a delinquent tax return. (IRM 5.1.20, Field Collecting Procedures, Collection Inventory (11/2/2016); IRS website "How To Know it's Really the IRS Calling or Knocking on Your Door: Collection")

In cases where a taxpayer may have been affected by a disaster, the IRS can use "soft contact" procedures to contact the taxpayer about a tax debt. A soft contact entails approaching the taxpayer with caution and extreme sensitivity to their personal circumstances. Stress and fatigue are factors to consider even in instances where the taxpayer did not experience any personal, monetary, or physical damage from the disaster. (IRM 5.1.12.2.7 (8/5/2014))

Due to COVID-19, the IRS has stopped field revenue officer enforcement actions, such as liens and levies. Revenue officers will continue to pursue high-income non-filers and perform "other similar activities" where necessary. See IRS provides updates on compliance, exam activities through July 15 (05/15/2020).

Limit on Field Collection activities to continue. The July 10, 2020 memo says that, until further notice, Field Collection will continue to maximize telework and remote contact between employees and taxpayers for the vast majority of its cases. Face-to-face public contact/field activities will only occur in exceptional cases, as described below. They will not be routine or regularly occurring activities.

Field Collection employees may be permitted to conduct essential face-to-face public contact/field activities on a voluntary basis, only when necessary and appropriate, and only with manager concurrence.

These limited face-to-face public contact/field activities may include making field contacts to view assets, serve summons, take necessary and appropriate investigative and/or enforcement actions, and conduct interviews with taxpayers, their designated representatives, and/or third parties at their homes or business locations (if there are no alternate locations where these activities can be performed), and will only be authorized when:

• There are no effective alternatives to face-to-face contact, and the failure to act poses a risk of permanent loss to the government, such as the expiration of a statute, assets being placed permanently beyond government reach, or the continuing pyramiding of employment tax liabilities; or

• The taxpayer or representative has requested face-to-face contact and the RO and manager agree that field contact would advance the progress of the case.

The memo stresses that ROs must conduct all face-to-face public contact/field activities with caution and extreme sensitivity to the taxpayer's personal circumstances and how the taxpayer has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. ROs must apply good judgment in determining when public contact and/or enforcement action is appropriate and should use Soft Contact procedures to determine the impact of the national emergency on the taxpayer.

The memo notes that the Internal Revenue Manual provides ROs with the necessary authorities and discretion to appropriately handle unusual situations and hardship issues.

Read more at: Tax Times blog

Do You Want Your Philly Cheese Steak With or Without Tax Fraud?

Two of the owners of the landmark Philadelphia cheesesteak spot Tony Luke's have been charged with carrying out an $8 million tax dodging scheme that involved false reports to government authorities and under-the-table payments to employees, federal prosecutors announced Friday.

According to DoJ, Owners of Philadelphia Cheesesteak Restaurant Indicted for Tax Evasion Allegedly Concealed $8 Million in Sales and Paid Employees “Off the Books” A federal grand jury in Philadelphia returned an indictment that was unsealed on July 24, 2020, charging the owners of a popular cheesesteak restaurant with conspiracy to defraud the IRS, tax evasion, and aiding and assisting in filing false tax returns. 
According to the indictment, Anthony Lucidonio Sr., and his son, Nicholas Lucidonio, both of New Jersey, owned and operated Tony Luke, a cheesesteak and sandwich restaurant located in South Philadelphia. From 2006 through 2016, the Lucidonios allegedly hid from the IRS more than $8 million in receipts by depositing only a portion of Tony Luke’s receipts into business bank accounts and filing with the IRS false business and personal tax returns that substantially understated their income. 

The indictment further alleges that the Lucidonios committed employment tax fraud by paying employees a portion of their wages and salaries “on the books” for some hours they worked, but then paying substantial additional wages for the remaining hours worked “off the books” in cash, without withholding and paying to the IRS the required employment taxes. From 2014 through 2015, they also allegedly filed false quarterly employment tax returns with the IRS substantially understating wages paid and taxes due. 

It is also alleged that after a dispute over franchising rights arose between the Lucidonios and another individual in 2015, the Lucidonios, concerned that their tax fraud scheme would be revealed, amended prior year tax returns to increase reported sales, but then falsely offset the increased income by inflating expenses. 
If convicted, the defendants face a maximum sentence of five (5) years in prison for the conspiracy charge and each count of tax evasion (50 yrs), and three years  (3) in prison for each false return charge (30 yrs). Defendants also face a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties. 
An indictment merely alleges that crimes have been committed. The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. 

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Read more at: Tax Times blog

IRS is Gradually Ramping-Up Enforcement

On July 15, 2020 we posted IRS Is Back, Fully Staffed & Resuming Issuing Tax Notices, Tax Liens & Tax Liens where we discussed that the Internal Revenue Service is recalled about 46,000 of its employees furloughed by the government shutdown, nearly 60 percent of its workforce; with the IRS being fully staffed on or before July 15, 2020 and that the IRS has reopen facilities in remaining states on July 13 with an emphasis on telework with plans to continue to encourage it, where possible, for the foreseeable future to ensure social distancing. 

Have an IRS Tax Problem?
 
 
Contact the Tax Lawyers at
Marini & Associates, P.A.   
for a FREE Tax Consultation contact us at:
Toll Free at 888-8TaxAid (888) 882-9243

Read more at: Tax Times blog

Final Regs Provide That GILTI High-Tax Exception Is Retroactive

According to Law360, The U.S. Treasury Department finalized Monday a partial tax exemption for companies that have already paid high foreign taxes on global income, and will allow businesses to apply the exemption retroactively to the end of 2017.

The U.S. Treasury Department finalized rules Monday that will allow companies to choose to apply the global intangible low-taxed income high-tax exclusion to taxable years back to Dec. 31, 2017. 
Under the exemption, the 10.5% tax on global intangible low-taxed income, part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act , won't apply to foreign income that has already been taxed by other jurisdictions at rates of 18.9% or more.
Treasury proposed the expanded exclusion in June 2019. The final rules let companies choose to apply the GILTI high-tax exclusion to the taxable years of foreign affiliates that begin after Dec. 31, 2017, and before July 23, 2020, when the regulations will be published in the Federal Register.

Lawmakers initially said GILTI would act as a corporate minimum tax, ensuring that companies do not pay excessively low taxes on income from intangible assets, such as intellectual property. The conference report that both chambers of Congress passed alongside the TCJA said that the GILTI tax wouldn't apply on income already taxed at 13.125% or higher, as businesses can use foreign tax credits to cover 80% of the foreign tax imposed.

Despite those nonbinding statements, Treasury ultimately found that foreign tax credit limitations can apply, creating much higher GILTI payments for some companies.
While the department declined to give businesses full relief from the foreign tax credit limits, it did offer an exemption for companies that have paid foreign taxes at rates higher than 18.9%, which is 90% of the full U.S. 21% corporate tax rate. 
The decision proved controversial with critics who claim it goes beyond the language of the statute.

By applying the exception retroactively, the rule may help companies dealing with the economic fallout of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The GILTI system does not allow companies to carry losses forward, which practitioners say can be unduly harsh for unprofitable companies. If they can use the exception, companies can remove subsidiaries from GILTI calculations entirely, potentially allowing for more flexibility in managing economic losses.

Aside from the final rule on the high-tax exclusion, issued under Internal Revenue Code Section 951A , Treasury on Monday also issued guidance under IRC Section 954 . The measure is part of Subpart F, the longstanding regime that immediately taxes the global passive income of controlled foreign corporations, or CFCs. In order to use the GILTI high-tax exception, a company must elect to use both Section 951A and Section 954.
The proposed regulations apply based on a company's effective foreign tax rate for the aggregate of CFC income attributable to a single qualified business unit, or QBU. For the final rules, Treasury rejected comments requesting the rate apply on a CFC-by-CFC basis, noting that doing so "would inappropriately allow the blending of high-taxed and low-taxed income."
Such blending "is inconsistent with the purpose of Section 951A, which is to limit potential base erosion incentives created by a participation exemption regime," Treasury said.
The regime, under the TCJA's IRC Section 245A , generally allows companies to bring home foreign-sourced income by claiming a 100% dividends-received deduction, provided the earnings don't fall under Subpart F or GILTI.
While the final rules don't apply on a CFC-by-CFC basis, they replace the QBU-by-QBU approach with "a more targeted" way for identifying relevant foreign earnings, according to Treasury.
Have an International Tax Problem?

 Contact the Tax Lawyers at
Marini & Associates, P.A. 


for a FREE Tax HELP Contact us at:
www.TaxAid.com or www.OVDPLaw.com
or 
Toll Free at 888 8TAXAID (888-882-9243) 

 

 

 

Read more at: Tax Times blog

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